The Researchers
BEACON Researchers
Professor Max Abrahms
Max Abrahms is an Associate Professor of Polical Science at North Eastern University. He is an expert in international security, especially in the areas of terrorism, U.S. foreign policy, great power competition, war, and the international relations of the Middle East.
Professor Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay
Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay is a Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at the University of Birmingham. His research interests in this area includes game theoretic modelling of criminal behaviour, econometric (statistical) analysis of factors determining crime, cost benefit analysis of alternate interventions, and the impact of initiatives such as citizen reporting.
Professor Aleks Cavoski
Aleks Cavoski is a Professor of Environmental Law and the Director of Global Engagement in the College of Arts and Law. Her research is in the field of environmental law and EU law, including certain aspects of public international law. She is also a part of the Centre for Environmental Research and Justice and a member of the Birmingham Plastics Network.
Dr Huiping Chen
Dr Huiping Chen is an Assistant Professor for the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham. Her research investigates theoretical and practical aspects of data mining including algorithmic design and optimization. Her research works have appeared in major conferences (KDD, ICDM, etc.) and journals (ACM Transactions on TKDD, Theoretical Computer Science, etc.). She serves as a PC member of conferences (e.g., ICDM and ECAI).
Dr Timothy Clack
Dr Timothy Clack is Chingiz Gutseriev Fellow at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford. He is the Director and Co-Founder of the Climate Change and (In)security Project and an Associate Fellow of the Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research. His research focuses on certain responses to climate and environmental change, including conflict and migration. Prior to and alongside his academic career, he has delivered several senior and specialist roles for the UK Cabinet Office, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and Stabilisation Unit.
Dr Melissa Colloff
Dr Melissa Colloff is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham. She conducts research on applied memory and cognition using research and statistical modelling techniques from basic psychology to investigate memory and decision-making in the legal system.
Dr Rita Floyd
Dr Rita Floyd is an Associate Professor in Conflict and Security in the Department of Political Science and International Studies. Dr Floyd was appointed Birmingham Fellow in Conflict and Security. Before then she was a British Academy Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Warwick and before then an ESRC post-doctoral fellow. She works on ethics and security, specifically the ethics of securitization. She also has an interest in climate and environmental security.
Dr Rasha Bayoumi
Dr Rasha Bayoumi is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham. Rasha Bayoumi is a health psychologist. She has been involved in research, clinical practice and teaching for the past two decades, in Canada, the UK, US, Sudan and Oman. She has worked for the World Health Organization on mental health and reproductive health. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Professor Heather Flowe
Heather Flowe is a Professor of Psychology, the Director of Global Engagement for the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, and the Co-Director of the Centre for Crime Justice and Policing at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on climate-related gender-based violence and forced migration. She leads an interdisciplinary FCDO GCRF Network+ on humanitarian protection, peace, security, and human rights in Africa and the Middle East, was PI on an ESRC UK-South Korea social sciences connections grant, which is aligned with the UK's 2021 Security and Policy Review, as well as an AHRC-funded UN Peace and Trust network.
Professor David Hudson
David Hudson is Professor of Politics and Development at the University of Birmingham and Director of the Developmental Leadership Program (DLP) and Co-Director of the Development Engagement Lab (DEL). He is also Head of the International Development Department.
Dr Amelia Kohl
Dr Amelia Kohl is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Psychology. She conducts behavioural experiments to study models of decision making.
Professor Aad van Moorsel
Aad van Moorsel is a Professor of Computer Science, the Head of the School of Computer Science, and the interim Director of the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Data Science and AI. His research focuses on security, trust, dependability, and FinTech.
Professor David Hannah
David Hannah is Professor of Hydrology in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences and Director of the Birmingham Institute for Sustainability and Climate Action. He is Chair-holder for the UNESCO Chair in Water Sciences at the University of Birmingham.
Professor James Rockey
James Rockey is a Professor in Economics and the Deputy Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Birmingham. His research is on political economy and inequality and includes recent international research on Gender Based Violence (e.g., FGM, sexual violence).
Professor Francis Pope
Francis Pope is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences in the School of Geography, Environment, and Earth Sciences at the University of Birmingham. He is an environmental scientist with wide ranging interests in the atmospheric sciences, human health and sustainable cities. He trained as a physical chemist and he uses this fundamental knowledge to develop novel instrumentation and probe systems of interest.
Dr Emily Scott
Dr Emily Scott is an Assistant Professor in the International Development Department at the University of Birmingham. Her research explores how the governance of "need" among migrants and refugees in the Middle East shapes humanitarian care and control by international organizations in areas affected by conflict. She is a Fulbright Scholar Alumna and Interim Head of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and Principal Investigator on a SSHRC Insight Development Grant-funded project titled, “Moving Aid: The Politics of Giving, Conflict, and Control in the Middle East”.
Dr Jizheng Wan
Jizheng Wan is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham. His research is mainly about using ML/DL for Ontology Learning and other NLP-related tasks. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS); a committee member of the Computational Psychophysiology – a Technological Committee under the IEEE SMC; also the secretary and publication chair of an international conference (sponsored by Springer) – Human Centered Computing.
Dr Kate Pincock
Dr Kate Pincock is is a Research Associate at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, and a Researcher for the Overseas Development Institute. A qualitative researcher, her research focuses on forced migration and gender in East Africa, and particularly on refugee-led solutions to the challenges of displacement. She received her Ph.D. in International Development from the University of Bath.